Last December, Aric Nesbitt, a proud Republican member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), introduced a bill, H.B. 5205 that went largely unnoticed. The bill would reclassify petroleum coke (“petcoke”) and solid waste as a “renewable energy resource”, eligible for renewable energy tax credits.

“What I learned from my military experience is that…there’s no way this is sustainable and there’s gonna be one day when we go back and die for this stuff.”

I meet a lot of really terrific people in my travels but Gordon Soderberg is one of he most selfless, compassionate men I’ve met in a very long time. He has devoted his entire life to serving others; first through his military service and then, since then, in working in disaster response and in recruiting and training veterans in this field.

From working with Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war protest to being on the front lines after hurricanes like Katrina and Sandy hit, the common element for Soderberg was a large, retro-fitted bus, painted Army green.…

Who knew we had six wind energy scientists in the state legislature?

Six Michigan Republicans have decided that Michigan shall not have wind energy installations on the Great Lakes. Why? Not, supposedly, because they are against renewable, clean wind energy. No, it’s because they have decided that (a) it’s not feasible and (b) we should never conduct studies to determine that it’s not feasible.

The bill, House Bill 4778 was introduced by Republican Ray Franz and has five co-sponsors: Greg MacMaster, Tim Kelly, Pat Somerville, Bob Genetski, and Jon Bumstead.

The relevant parts of the bill read thusly:

The department shall not enter into a lease or deed that allows the use of unpatented lands for the siting, placement, construction, operation, or maintenance of any structure to research wind energy development, any wind turbine, or any equipment or structure related to a wind turbine, including, but not limited, to a transmission line.…

Last week, the BlueGreen Alliance announced the launch of its “Repair America” campaign designed to push action on repairing crucial national infrastructure across the country and create thousands of valuable jobs in the process. The BlueGreen Alliance is a partnership of labor and environmental groups working to expand the number of jobs in the renewable energy sector. Over 100 people attended the kick-off event in Warren, Michigan.

The following guest post is from Sue Browne, the Regional Program Manager for the BlueGreen Alliance, which discusses the importance of the “Repair America” campaign.

Ensuring our energy policy doesn't compromise our water supply

In 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (pdf) into law. This comprehensive law does everything from providing new subsidies and incentives for renewable energy production (like wind, solar, biomass, wave & tidal, and geothermal) and tax breaks for energy conservation improvements on homes to providing incentives for increased drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and exempting oil and gas producers from certain requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. It even extended Daylight Savings Time by a week. There's a fine summary of this 551 page bill HERE.
One of the components of the Energy Policy Act was Section 979 which compelled Energy Secretary to study the interaction and interplay of water-related issues and energy-related issues. The intent was to ensure that we fully understand how our country's energy policy impacts our water resources.
The study is eight years late and there's a petition to sign to move it forward. Details are after the jump.

Vote YES! on Michigan Proposal 3

Enbridge Energy, the company that owns the pipeline that spilled over a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River has donated $10,000 to Clean Affordable Renewable Energy (CARE) for Michigan, the deceptively-named group fighting Proposal 3 which would require 25% of Michigan's energy be from renewable sources by 2025. Clean Water Action is decrying this donation and demanding they spend their money cleaning up the environment catastrophe they are responsible for.
Meanwhile, President Bill Clinton has endorsed a YES vote on Prop 3. Details of both after the jump.

Follow the money

Changing energy policy in our country is very, very difficult. There are many things that make it so hard but the main impediment is the staggering amount of money that Big Oil companies and utility companies spend to fight any change from the status quo.
Nowhere is this more true at the moment than the fight against Proposal 3 - a ballot proposal to increase Michigan's use of renewable energy to 25% by 2025. When you vote on November 6th, you should turn the ballot over to vote in the nonpartisan section and VOTE YES ON PROPOSAL 3.
All the details after the jump.

You wanna schplain that one to us, Mitt?

Mitt Romney made an astonishing promise today: he told a crowd of coal miners that he will have the USA energy independent from sources outside North America by 2021.
It's particularly astonishing given that he is against subsidizing renewable energy sources.
So, how is he going to get us off foreign energy sources? That's a fine question and one that Romney hasn't really answered.
This, of course, surprises exactly nobody.
Much more after the jump.

The Obama administration is announcing this week that they are making an historic investment in biofuels by purchasing 450,000 gallons of drop-in biofuel made from waste cooking oil and from an algae-based system. The fuel is called “drop in” because it can be blended with the traditional fuels used now with no need for equipment modifications.

WASHINGTON, December 5, 2011 — Today, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) signed a contract to purchase 450,000 gallons of advanced drop-in biofuel, the single largest purchase of biofuel in government history.

Tony Trupiano is the host of the radio program, The Voice of the People, heard on blogtalkradio.com every Monday through Friday from 9 AM until Noon ET . He is the author of two books and he has been part of the progressive media landscape for 20-plus years. Known as "The Voice of Labor" and as an activist & advocate, Tony has no problem showing up for a good fight. Follow him on Twitter @tonytrupiano.